It is known to use pressure to create an animal feed pellet consisting of two or more feed ingredients and a binder. Such known pellets are typically made using a pellet press (also commonly referred to as a pellet mill or flat-die pellet mill). The pellet press typically includes a cylindrical housing enclosing several rollers configured to roll over a flat round perforated die (i.e. a ring die press). To make the pellets, the ingredients and the binder are pressed by the rollers in the housing (at a high temperature of about 48° C. to about 95° C.). When the ingredients and the binder make contact with the rollers, they are forced or extruded through the circular holes of the die, and then cut with a knife, resulting in the formation of pellets having a cylindrical shape.
One known animal feed pellet made in a pellet mill incorporates a high melting point (i.e. 65° C.) fat (i.e. fully hydrogenated soybean oil) and is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/230,309 entitled “Mineral Feed Supplement” filed Sep. 19, 2005 by Jobe et al. and currently assigned to CAN Technologies, Inc. Another known animal feed pellet made in a pellet mill incorporates a high melting point fat binder (i.e. soy oil 0.50 wt %) and also includes the following ingredients: wheat mids (18.00 wt %), urea (5.00 wt %), calcium carbonate (56.40 wt %), salt (18.10 wt %), and other trace vitamins and minerals (2.00 wt %). However, preparation of such known animal feed pellet requires high pressures and high melting-point binders/lubricants.
It is also known to use a tumble growth agglomeration method to make a fertilizer pellet consisting of an ingredient and a binder. However, the ingredients and binders in such known fertilizer pellets are not suitable for animal feed.